Gene Trainor

Gene Trainor, Chief Operating Officer

What he does: Manages day-to-day operations at Foundation Capital.

What he likes to collect: Hard circle commitments from limited partners.

Gene came to Foundation Capital from New Enterprise Associates in August 2010. He spent 10 years at NEA as the Administrative General Partner and the COO responsible for all day-to-day non-investment activities. During that time, he was instrumental in setting up offices in China and India while firm assets under management doubled to nearly $12 billion.

Before that, Gene was an Executive Vice President and the COO of Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn, LLC, a New York-based asset management firm that grew from $900 million in assets to over $6 billion during his tenure. He was also instrumental in structuring a minority sale of the firm to a large nation bank. Previously, Gene was the CFO/Controller of a Mid-Atlantic venture capital firm and a member of the audit group for Ernst & Young, LLP.

Gene learned the basics of operations management well before he went to business school -- from the jobs he had growing up. Those included delivering newspapers and being a water boy for the Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts).

Profile: Gene grew up wanting to be a coroner, but ended up in operations. He has a head for details, and would have been teaching math in San Francisco if he didn’t love his job.

His greatest accomplishment: “Being happily married for 26 years.”

He supports: The Sellinger School of Business at the Loyola University, Maryland, and is on their Board of Sponsors. Gene has also been involved in CURE SMA for more than 20 years, helping raise over $4 million for the leading organization working on a treatment and cure for spinal muscular atrophy, the #1 genetic cause of death in children under two years of age..

The best piece of advice he ever got: “If you’re going to do it, do it right.”

Training: Certified public accountant;BA from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County;MBA from Loyola University, Maryland.